Former Seattle Mariners President and CEO Kevin Mather made a number of abhorrent remarks while addressing the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club earlier this month. Mather’s statements belittling the ability of the Mariners’ foreign-born players to speak English were particularly xenophobic, and they also revealed his ignorance and arrogance.
[The video of Mather’s speech Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club’s channel can be found here; Lookout Landing also posted a full transcript.]
Despite promoting concepts like diversity and multiculturalism, Major League Baseball has long struggled to make non-English-speaking players feel welcome and comfortable in major league clubhouses.